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Russell Launches Free Online Tool for Equity Risk Analysis

Russell Investments has just released a free Web-based tool designed specifically for advisors that provides institutional-quality equity risk analysis of clients’ portfolios.

Called the Russell Factor Management Tool (FMT) and available on RussellETFs.com, the online tool, launched on July 5, is powered by market data from Morningstar and risk models from analytics provider Axioma. The tool was tested by dozens of advisors in beta phases.

Cory Haynes, e-business director for Russell ETFs, said advisors can leverage the tool to better understand equity risk and help their clients make decisions around how to control the risk-return factors that influence the stocks in the equity portion of a portfolio. FMT’s “easy-to-navigate steps” facilitate conversations with three phases that walk the advisor through loading the portfolio, isolating the client's equity/cash portion and conducting the risk analysis.

“FMT democratizes institutional tools for advisors,” Haynes said in a phone interview. “We think there’s a benefit to bringing this tool to advisors, even at the individual investor level.”

In addition, “before” and “after” scenarios can be created using Russell exchange-traded funds. All benchmark indexes used to measure a portfolio’s risk are Russell indexes, but advisors can use any stock, ETF or mutual fund in their models.

Michael Scanlon, director of institutional and RIA sales for Russell ETFs, who also sat in on the interview, noted that the tool “does a really good job of exposing closet indexers.”